Saturday Frights: Ghost Story – “House Of Evil”

Welcome back, dear viewers. For this transmission, deep down in the Retroist Vault, I have chosen a 1972 episodic anthology series that was known in certain circles as Ghost Story or Circle of Fear. It has quite the pedigree. It was Executive Produced by the legendary William Castle and distributed by Screen Gems.

You might recall that Mr. Castle was the genius responsible for the cinematic horror classics as House on Haunted Hill, 13 Ghosts, Mr. Sardonicus, and of course The Tingler. I personally had the pleasure of meeting Mr. Castle twice in my career as head Projectionist.

This episode of Ghost Story is called ‘House of Evil’ and features Melvyn Douglas as a Grandfather who is not quite what he seems. He has brought two unique gifts to his beloved granddaughter Judy, who is played by Jodie Foster, a doll house that appears to be the spitting image of her actual home and the disturbing ability to communicate to his mute Granddaughter without using his mouth. I am sorry to say that Grandfather hasn’t decided to visit his Family in an effort to get to know them better, it is on a matter of vengeance.

Lurking in the bowels of the Retroist Vault, the Projectionist comforts himself with the dreams of celluloid glory of days gone by. With his assistant, Daniel XIII, in the quiet time of the night he serves as host in what has been dubbed the Haunted Drive-In. Bringing films to the entertainment starved masses the Haunted Drive-In projector roars to life and shines brightly once again...